Cornbread muffins

Saw this recipe online and thought I'd give it a try.  It was great as a muffin rather than a quick bread, toasted with some Bon Maman raspberry jam.

Banana Walnut Honey Corn Muffins with Walnuts
Recipe adapted from Sarah's Cucina Bella


Ingredients:

• 1 cup yellow cornmeal
• 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 overripe banana, mashed
• 1/4 cup honey
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 cup low-fat buttermilk milk
• 2 tablespoons canola oil or melted butter
• 1 can of corn
• 1 cup chopped walnuts

Method:

Preheat oven to 400, paper a 12-cup muffin tin.  Mix cornmeal, flours, b powder, and salt in small bowl, set aside.  In larger bowl mash the banana and add honey, eggs, milk, and oil and mix til combined.  Add to flour mixture and mix just til dry is incorporated.  Add corn and nuts and mix a few more times, don't over-mix batter or you will deflate it.  Pop in the oven for 15 minutes and then add time in 3 minute increments until the center is set.

Whole Wheat Honey Cinnamon Cornbread

I'm still trying to use up my Masa flour. This recipe used 3/4 cup and came out really well so I will be adding fruit to it in the future in order to use up the rest of the bag. Blueberries are the obvious choice. This recipe could also have a little bit more honey or sugar in it and be a nice cake. I would double the recipe and put whipped cream in between and fresh berries or something.

This recipe comes from Edible Perspective.

Ingredients:

3/4 cup fine-medium ground cornmeal
3/4 cup masa harina
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon

1 cup low-fat buttermilk
5 Tbsp honey
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 Tbsp oil

Method:

Preheat oven to 375 and grease a 9x9 square pan.
Combine all dry ingredients in one bowl, set aside.
Combine wet ingredients in another bowl.
Add dry to wet and mix just til combined.
Pour batter into pan.
At this point I sprinkled some oats and more cinnamon on top just for fun but blueberries would be nice sprinkled on top as well.
Bake for around 20 to 25 minutes or until a knife comes out clean from the center.

Muffin Thursday: Strawberry Rhubarb Whole Wheat Corn Muffins

I picked up a huge bag of rhubarb this week at Produce Junction!! What to do with it? Obviously strawberries have to be involved, and I think it was Marie who suggested the corn muffin part. We have been trying to think of ways to use up the huge bag of masa corn flour that has been sitting on the shelf forever.

I used this recipe for the muffins but added about 1 1/2 cups of strawberries and 1 1/2 cups of chopped rhubarb. I made a few other changes to include the masa flour and balanced it out with whole wheat. I changed the butter to oil and instead of using all milk I threw in some buttermilk that I found in the fridge and a little skim too. I cut back on the sugar and used a giant muffin tin to bake them. I also doubled the ingredients from the original recipe because I wanted to use as much rhubarb up as I could and I still have some left sitting in the fridge.

INGREDIENTS:

2 cup cornmeal
1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup masa corn flour
2 Tbs. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1/2 cup canola oil
scant 1/4 cup sugar
2 egg
1 1/4 cup butter milk
3/4 cup skim milk
1/2 pint strawberries, chopped
4 stalks or so rhubarb, chopped

INSTRUCTIONS
Stir the dry ingredients together in a bowl.
Stir the sugar into the oil.
Add the eggs and milks.
Pour the dry ingredients into the wet and stir, just to combine.
Pour in strawberries and rhubarb and stir just until dispersed.
Divide into 6 greased giant muffin cups.
Bake at 425 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until the tops are crusty and the muffins bounce back to the touch.
Let the muffins cool for a while in the pan- the masa flour makes them very brittle, if they look like they're going to stick heat the bottom of the pan and use a knife to loosen around the edges. They taste great even when the tops fall off!

Home-made Tortillas

So I've been looking at this bag of Masa flour that my mom bought for a while now. She got it to use a tablespoon for a chili recipe forever ago and we haven't really used it since. One thing you can do is add water and make tortillas with it.

So I started experimenting last night. It's really easy, the dough feels like play-dough. This recipe doesn't add anything flavor-wise to the dough but I would definitely add some salt and black pepper next time. Some people add lime juice. I was thinking it might be fun to add a little cayenne pepper or something. There are a lot of possible flavor combinations.

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cups masa harina
1 1/8 cups water

Directions:

In a medium bowl, mix together masa harina and hot water until thoroughly combined. Turn dough onto a clean surface and knead until pliable and smooth. If dough is too sticky, add more masa harina; if it begins to dry out, sprinkle with water. I followed the above proportions exactly and had to add a bit more water because the mixture was too dry.

Cover dough tightly with plastic wrap and allow to stand for 30 minutes.

Preheat a cast iron skillet or griddle to medium-high.

Divide dough into 15 equal-size balls. I divided into 16 because it is an even number, when I rolled the individual balls they rolled out very thin and brittle, when I combined 2 balls and rolled it out it made a thicker and bigger tortilla. Using a rolling pin, press each ball of dough flat between two sheets of parchment paper. Immediately place tortilla in preheated pan and allow to cook for approximately 30 seconds, or until browned and slightly puffy. Turn tortilla over to brown on second side for approximately 30 seconds more, then transfer to a plate. Repeat process with each ball of dough. Keep tortillas covered with a towel to stay warm and moist until ready to serve.

These guys are best eaten immediately, they get dry and more brittle as they sit. You can make them bigger or smaller, thicker or thinner, careful as thinner ones will rip easier.

My mom just happened to be making a white bean and grilled kale salad so she turned that into a taco sort of dish by wrapping it in a tortilla!! These things are so versatile, she ended up taking one for lunch the next day too.